Who Is Talia Balsam, George Clooney’s Wife Before Amal Alamuddin Had Twins?

Before George Clooney ditched his single life to wed human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014, he was married to actress Talia Balsam. The same day he and Amal welcomed their twins into the world, people began to wonder about the first woman who swept Clooney, a famous bachelor, off his feet.

Clooney, 56, married Balsam when he was 28 years old in Las Vegas Dec. 15, 1989. But the relationship didn’t last long. Four years later, the “Gravity” actor filed for divorce Oct. 12, 1992. Their date of separation was listed in the divorce filing as August 1991.

The duo didn’t have a long courtship. They reportedly only dated a few months before they said, “I do.”

READ: Amal, George Clooney Welcome Twins

While Clooney is arguably more famous, Balsam, 57, has a long list of credits on the Internet Movie Database. She’s known for films like “No Strings Attached,” “The Wackness,” “All the King’s Men” and “Little Manhattan.” On the small screen, she’s held roles on shows like “Divorce, “Mad Men,” “Homeland” and “Without A Trace.”

Still, in some cases, she is best known as Clooney’s first wife. But it doesn’t bother her. “I’m totally used to it now. And he does talk about it more than I do!” she told the Sunday Express in 2013. “It’s funny because it’s still in the present somehow, even though it was a long time ago. Now it’s just a fact. It doesn’t even enter my head any more.”

The former lovers remain amicable. “George is charming. He remains charming. I’ve worked with him,” she told People Magazine in October. “I probably - definitely - wasn’t someone who should have been married at the point.”

Clooney agreed that he was ready to be married at 28 years old. “I probably – definitely – wasn't someone who should have been married at the point,” he said in 2014. “I just don't feel like I gave Talia a fair shot.”

Like Clooney, Balsam found love with someone else. She’s now married to “Mad Men” star John Slattery.

“I’m married, very happily married, now,” she told People Magazine in October. “I would say divorce, breaking up, being a child of divorce, any of those things are always very challenging. And I think that’s what makes this sort of a universal thing.”

She and Slattery share a son, Harry, together.

Balsam did not issue a statement about Clooney’s twins, a boy and a girl.

READ: About George Clooney’s First Wife After Amal Alamuddin Wedding

“This morning Amal and George welcomed Ella and Alexander Clooney into their lives. Ella, Alexander and Amal are all healthy, happy and doing fine,” the actor’s publicist Stan Rosenfield told Reuters in an email Tuesday. He added jokingly: “George is sedated and should recover in a few days.”

While Clooney took a break from the spotlight while his 39-year-old wife was pregnant, he talked about the expectant mother in March.

“She is doing really great,” he told Extra. “She is amazing. I don’t have anything to do. There is nothing I can do to help, but make tea and stuff.”

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